The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
DeKalb fixes that can’t be delayed
Failure of big water main under major road this month points to need for DeKalb County to make long-overdue fixes, improvements to its infrastructure and agency that oversees it.
There’s nothing like a spectacular water main break in the middle of an arterial roadway to drag widespread attention back to the ongoing mess that clings stubbornly to water and sewer operations in DeKalb County.
The March 7 failure of a 4-foot-diameter water main under Buford Highway provided dramatic visuals for news cameras and washed serious, widespread lifestyle and business disruptions upon thousands of customers, ranging from homes to surgery suites and most anything else you can visualize in a broad stretch of DeKalb from Perimeter Mall to Decatur.
It’s the latest in a long-running chain of water and sewer system failures in DeKalb. And we believe it should spur the county to dramatically — and quickly — step up its game to bring this critical infrastructure up to date.
Nothing less is acceptable in a county that’s seeing a return to substantial growth post-Great Recession. Fixing all of this will be much harder than might be expected, given the political shortcomings — and outright goofiness, at times — that has plagued Georgia’s fourth-largest county.
Since 2011, DeKalb has been under a consent decree established after sewage spills led to concerns about public health. The agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state regulators required the county to improve its network of sewage pipes and update its policies. That work is supposed to be done by mid-2020.
The number of water and sewer failures since then — reportedly nearing 40 this year alone — speak more forcefully than we can as to how far the county still has to go to create an adequate system for residents and businesses.
Luckily for DeKalb, the latest big water outage and systemwide boil order were relatively short-lived as crews scrambled to repair the water main and restore service over the course of three days. Customers can be forgiven for thinking it lasted longer than that.
Even as ice-makers and restaurant soda fountains burbled back to life after costly shutdowns, the larger, systemic problems remained. DeKalb simply has to do more, and do better — fast.
Drawing even more attention and drama to the latest water main rupture was the abrupt departure of Scott Towler, director of DeKalb’s Watershed Department, who stepped down two days before the Buford Highway pipe shattered. In leaving, Towler fired off a scathing letter, alleging both incompetence and worse on the part of some county officials, who’re supposed to be guiding to completion a massive, multiyear upgrade of the county’s sewer and water infrastructure.
Towler’s March 5 letter accused both his boss, and DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond, of pushing him to violate the 2011 consent decree. Towler wrote that, when he resisted, they started to leave him out of meetings and decision-making.
The county clapped back, alleging that he was a disgruntled employee and offering information that they said points to Towler’s improper usage of county vehicles and pay allowances for use of personal cars.
The HR-themed drama over Towler’s departure should not draw attention away from the problems that need to be repaired. One personnel challenge worthy of DeKalb officials’ consideration is just what sort of bureaucracy sees four watershed directors in just five years? We’d suggest it’s not an efficient, well-running one.
With denser housing, new businesses and single-family housing developments again crowding into DeKalb, the county simply must find ways to create a water and sewer system that functions well dayto-day, and contains adequate capacity to handle expected growth in demand.
Taxpayers have long shown their disdain for the political uproar in county government. New cities have been stood up, in good part over concerns about the county, and some DeKalb-ites are still upset that other cityhood efforts have failed — so far.
DeKalb officials have, at times, seemed tone-deaf to long-held resident concerns over the operations of the county government and school system.
County CEO Thurmond was credited with helping stabilize DeKalb’s scandal-prone school system during his time as superintendent. Now that he’s in the top job in county government, we’re hopeful that the widely respected Thurmond can leverage both his political and administrative experience to help get DeKalb back on track.
The county is a large, central chunk of metro Atlanta’s core, and is thus critical to the future of this still-growing region. DeKalb County deserves a government that’s up to the task of cleaning up the county, figuratively and literally.
Getting the sewer and water system into a state of both good repair and sufficient capacity will go a very long way toward reaching goals of restoring both competent government and the confidence of skeptical taxpaying residents and businesses.